Under the absolute government of a single man, despotism, to reach the soul, clumsily struck at the body, and the soul, escaping from such blows, rose gloriously above it; but in democratic republics that is not at all how tyranny behaves; it leaves the body alone and goes straight for the soul. The master no longer says: "Think like me or you die." He does say: "You are free not to think as I do; you can keep your life and your property and all; but from this day you are a stranger among us...When you approach your fellows, they will shun you as an impure being...I have spared your life, but it is a life worse than death."
Democracy in America, Volume One, Part II, Chapter 7
Democracy in America, Volume One, Part II, Chapter 7
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